I pushed off the cot, my legs unsteady. Two steps. That's all it was. Two steps and a reach. I stopped beside him, staring at the hat like it might bite.
Just pick it up.
My fingers closed around the brim.
It felt like any normal hat. But I knew better. It possessed a power that could drive you insane, drop you to your knees.
My hand trembled as I handed it to Darius. The others had gone quiet, all eyes on me. Watching. Waiting. “Here.”
He took it carefully, his silver eyes never leaving mine. The sharpness in his face fell away, replaced by something softer. Almost reverent. He lifted the hat and placed it gently on my head.
“Accept.”
I braced for pain—but warmth bloomed instead. Tingles rolled over me like sunlight after a long winter, moving slowly down my neck, across my chest, settling over my heart. A gentle heat, like smoldering wax, pressed into my skin.
Then the warmth faded. The tingles stopped.
And I felt it there. The mark. His mark. Over my heart.
Goosebumps rose on my skin, and then everything else went still—my breath, my heart, my thoughts. Twenty-one years I’d waited for this. Twenty-one years of being unwanted, untrusted, unchosen. And now?—
“Fate.” Darius’ eyes beamed with pride. “You’re now a member of the Uncrowned Rebellion.” His mouth quirked. “Though most just call us the Hatter’s Impossibles.”
I laughed—or sobbed. I wasn’t sure which. Maybe both.
I belonged. Finally, Ibelonged.
Darius lifted my chin, his silver eyes searching mine—giving me a chance to pull back. To say no.
I didn’t.
His lips met mine, soft at first. Tentative. Like he was asking a question. And when I leaned into him, he had his answer.
The kiss deepened. I sank against him, my palms pressing flat against his chest, feeling the steady thunder of his heartbeat beneath my hands. Slowly I slid them upward, tracing the hard planes of muscle, the ridges and valleys of a body built for war. He shuddered under my touch—this powerful, terrifying Golden Demon—and something molten unfurled low in my belly.
His other hand found my waist, pulling me closer, and I went willingly. Desperately. Like I’d been starving for this and hadn’t known it until now.
When we finally broke apart, both of us breathless, his forehead rested against mine.
“Happy birthday, Fate,” he murmured against my lips.
And for the first time in twenty-one years, I believed I deserved it.
“Well, well, well.” Chester’s grin materialized first, followed lazily by the rest of him. “The Mad King gives a gift and takes one for himself. How deliciously mad.”
Heat flooded my cheeks. I started to pull away from Darius, but his hand on my waist held me steady.
“Don’t mind Grin,” Darius said. “He’s insufferable on his best days.”
“Insufferable?” Chester’s grin stretched impossibly wider. “I prefer observant.”
Caterpillar drifted closer, a curl of smoke trailing from his lips. He regarded me with half-lidded eyes, slow and unhurried, as if time meant nothing to him.
“Who... are... you?” The words came out languid, measured.
I blinked. “I—you know who I am.”
“Do I?” He exhaled another plume of smoke. “You were Alice when you fell through the mirror. A lost witch. A stranger.” His ancient gaze settled on the place over my heart where the mark now lived. “But that is not who you are now... is it?”
